Offender Recidivism: The Effects Of Motivational Risk Factors

Recidivism is an inclination to return to a previous state of mind, where one may have committed crimes, both misdemeanors and felonies. One of the main concerns of recidivism, or reoffending, is the rate at which prisoners are released and recommit crimes, motivational factors. The cause of recidivism is mostly determined as psychological, or from the mental mind of a human. Researchers over the decades have theorized that these actions can be a result of the individuals living conditions and how each choice has pros and cons, or good and bad.

How Reoffending Affects Life

Reoffending, is one the leading effects in the criminal justice field, often claiming many teens, young adults, middle age, and even elders, not to mention, males and females alike. It may also be the repeat offender’s arrest and incarceration of a range of the original offense. Recidivism is usually a negative habit that makes a person slide back into their old life of crime, or new crime, some criminals, even after going through rehabilitation, still go under effects of recidivism, and continue to commit crimes. Some crimes committed are the need to express themselves, some do it to provide for their families, or pay off debts, while some develop some mental illness and like committing crimes, or certain n crimes. These reoffenders continue to commit crime after crime, even after being released as a fix to help their mental state in their own mind.

From several state agencies and federal bureaus, the tendency to reoffend on a national level is above 30%. Around 3 out of 10 offenders find themselves recommitting crime and returning to the same facility they had spent previous time in. Prisons across the states pay more than millions to rehabilitate and house criminals both 1st time offenders and re-offenders, however the cost only continues to increase. With time, and the advancement of technology, this number has increased over the years as some criminals are just committing minor offenses such as possession of marijuana. In 2016, just over 2 million people have been incarcerated worldwide. Currently offender arrests from marijuana possession are over 1 million, and violations are over 500,000. Out of all the races, African Americans, and Latino’s hold just under 50% of infringements of being caught smuggling, holding drugs, or selling drugs to other people (‘Drug War Statistics’). With marijuana becoming legal in many states and some states don’t even register weed as a serious crime, some states and counties within have undergone changes to how to deal with possession of marijuana properly, which in turn reduced crime and recidivism effects. A state’s recidivism rate is the product of numerous variables including what their crime laws are, in states that have recently legalized the recreational use of marijuana or weed, have seen not only a decline in prison population, but also a decline in recidivism. In states where weed is still considered illegal, age groups between 18 to early 30’s have undergone several reoffences. As stated before, some people reoffend for money to support habits and family, and others may reoffend because they like the feeling of being high and committing crimes.

Measuring reoffending rates must be complied over 5 to 10 years to get the best results and accurate data as to why criminals revert to their previous state. According to the National Institute of Justice, over a 9-year period, researchers found that “in 2005, over four-hundred thousand prisoners were given freedom, and over the projected period of time, police made over one million arrests, furthermore just over half of the inmates who reoffended were taken back to prison just within 3 of the 9 years (Measuring Recidivism, 2008)”. (Sawyer, 2019)

The methodology of Recidivism has 3 forms of risk factors, including, but not limited to overall reoffending among adult male offenders, violent tendency among mentally disordered offenders, and sexual reoffending among sexual offenders (‘The same risk factors predict most types of recidivism’, 2015). These risks spiral out of control from any criminal history both misdemeanors and felonies, negative opinions form peers, abusing alcohol and drugs, and having any personality or mental disorders. General recidivism and violent recidivism affect everyone, and usually past offenders are brought back to prison because the life they are trying to fit into is just too hard. Violent offenders who have grown up in poor neighborhoods often revert back once returning, seeing there is no escape. Other reoffenders look to crime as a way to support their families or to make up old debts, or to pay for addictions. Guy and Wilson, stated that “findings suggest that the risk assessment of mentally disordered offenders can be enhanced with more attention to the social psychological criminological literature and less reliance on models of psychopathology.” In a simple matter, putting mental criminals through treatments should help make them choose better decisions like putting them through rehab. Sexual Recidivism rates typically follow a period of 3 years. Recently the total rate for recidivism for treated sex offenders was over 25% and 40% for untreated offenders. Sexual offenders have the worst re-entry programs to society, and often find themselves returning to prison, not being able to fit in to normal life.

References

1. Bonta, J., Law, M., & Hanson, K. (1998, March). The prediction of criminal and violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders: a meta-analysis. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9522681.
2. Drug War Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-war-statistics.
3. Ganti, A. (2019, September 23). Rational Choice Theory Definition. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rational-choice-theory.asp.
4. Guy, L. S., & Wilson, C. M. (n.d.). Empirical Support for the HCR‐20: A Critical Analysis of the Violence Literature. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/psych_cmhsr/334/
5. Handelman, S., Gest, T., & Crime and Justice News. (2018, April 10). Recidivism Rates ‘Unacceptably High,’ says Sessions. Retrieved from https://thecrimereport.org/2018/04/09/recidivism-rates-unacceptably-high-says-sessions/.
6. Hanson, R. K. (2009). The psychological assessment of risk for crime and violence. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 50, 172-182.
7. Measuring Recidivism. (2008, February 20). Retrieved from https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/measuring-recidivism.
8. Przybylski, R. (n.d.). Chapter 5: Adult Sex Offender Recidivism: SOMAPI: SMART Office. Retrieved from https://www.smart.gov/SOMAPI/sec1/ch5_recidivism.html.
9. Sawyer, Wendy. “BJS Fuels Myths about Sex Offense Recidivism, Contradicting Its Own New Data.” Prison Policy Initiative, June 6, 2019. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2019/06/06/sexoffenses/.
10. The same risk factors predict most types of recidivism. (2015, December 3). Retrieved from https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/smrsk-fctrs/index-en.aspx.